Females

Jo Swinson: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission what proportion of  (a) members of the House of Commons Management Board,  (b) heads of department of the House of Commons and  (c) heads of each office or service in each House of Commons department are women.

John Thurso: The information is as follows:
	 (a) The House of Commons Management Board comprises the Clerk of the House (Chair), the Directors General of the four departments of the House and the Director of PICT, which is a joint department of the two Houses. There is also an external member. The proportion of women is 17%. A new department, the Department of Finance, will be launched on 1 April 2011. The Head of the new department will sit on the Management Board, and her presence will alter the proportion of women on the Board to 29%  (b) The proportion of women who are heads of the four current departments of the House is zero and will rise to 20% of five departments in April. If PICT is included, the figures are 17.5% and 33% respectively,  (c) Currently, there are 27 Directors/Heads of Office. Ten of these (43%) are women. If PICT is included, the figure is 37%.